News by Subject Technology & Engineering

While the material strontium titanate (SrTiO3) has shown immense potential as a photocatalyst in solar energy conversion, it is unclear whether chemical defects can influence its properties. Now, researchers at Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan, looked into how doping with niobium affects the charge properties of SrTiO3 crystals. Their findings can help us to increase the efficiency of SrTiO3 photocatalysts, opening doors to a sustainable energy source.

Some neuroscience theories suggest the human brain operates best 'at the edge of chaos'. Now scientists in Australia and Japan have found that keeping a nanowire network at the edge of becoming chaotic is the best state for it to produce useful signals to solve problems.

In a new study, researchers from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in Korea have investigated the transformation dynamics induced by an electric field in mixed-phase lanthanum-doped bismuth ferrite (BLFO) epitaxial thin films. They observed a connection between the presence of S/Stilt phases in BLFO film and their high piezoelectricity. These findings can help us design faster and more efficient piezoelectric materials.

An Australian-Chinese collaboration achieves record-high electron doping in a layered ferromagnet, causing magnetic phase transition--with significant promise for future electronics. Control of magnetism by electric voltage is vital for developing future, low-energy high-speed nano-electronic and spintronic devices, such as spin-orbit torque devices and spin field-effect transistors.

Development of a new APEX reaction means that large numbers of nanographenes can be easily synthesized using a commercially available hydrocarbon as a template.

The contemporary materials industry raises the problem of creating a microscopic theory that allows to describe the observed physicochemical properties of a wide class of substances which are in demand in modern industry, medicine, and agriculture.